If ever I become interested in something I want to invest in learning about it, understanding the intricacies, and studying the great examples of the category.
I have found that there are two paths to go down. I can devote my time and energy to the list of the critics and the professionals or I can devote myself to the favorites and the popular. A friend of mine has been in debate with me about this for a couple years. He trusts the list of the popular and I prefer to run to the critics.
For instance, when I decided to read more books I compiled a list of the classic works and the required reading from multiple colleges. When I get interested in a beverage, I order the “complete course” book about the drink. When I decided to start being more judicious with my movie watching I threw the entirety of the AFI top 100 list into my Netflix queue. (In the most recent iteration of this I have a complicated random system for choosing a movie)
Why does my mind seem to bend this way when investing in something?
Ideals
Part of my draw is associated with my fascination of ideals. The Platonic idea that there is an ideal in any category and all of our creations are really attempts to emulate or align with the ideal. I believe the world was created good and whole but now is broken. When we create and create well we are working toward the good, and thus the ideal, that once was and which will one day be restored. If I am going to invest in a category of discovery I want to be able to find and experience the members of that category that are most closely associated with the ideal.
Professional and Critical Opinion
I also care what the professionals and critics of a category think. They have invested their lives or careers in observing or crafting excellence in their field. They, often, are not willing to allow something to be “ok”. They want greatness. They compared to the prior “greats” or classics and submit their opinions or critiques with those in mind.
Required to Think
If I submit myself to a list that includes the critically acclaimed work I am including myself into a grander narrative. If it is literature, I am reading the works that inform and influence the works that come after them. The more I read the more I understand that many authors are talking to each other and responding to what came before.
In movies, I am beginning to see how modern films use techniques or try to mimic styles of the greats that came before. Nothing is created in isolation.
When I submit myself to this list I am requiring myself to think and consider what is being said or crafted, how it has been molded, and how it responds to what preceded it. This, though sometimes work, is an exercise I find very enjoyable and, the more I practice, very rewarding.
What path do you choose? Why do you think you are prone to that direction?